Ashwell Buildings and Antiquities

Ashwell Neighbourhood Plan
Appendix C

Ashwell
Buildings and Antiquities

2^ndEdition

David Short

Ashwell Village Museum
2020

Ashwell Neighbourhood Plan Appendix C

Copyright © Ashwell Village Museum 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the author.

Published by: Ashwell Village Museum
11 Swan Street Ashwell Hertfordshire SG7 5NY

ISBN:

2
Appendix C

Contents

Preface 1^stedition Preface 2^ndedition Acknowledgements Introduction
4567
List of Buildings

Angell’s Meadow

9

Ashwell Street

Back Street

9

Bacons Yard Church Lane Church Path
10 10 10

Claybush Road formerly Bygrave Road

10

10 10 11 11 22 24 24 25 30 30 30 30 31 32 33 34 38 41 44 45 46
Fordham close Gardiner's Lane Green Lane High Street Hodwell Kingsland Way Lucas Lane Mill Street Newnham Way Partridge Hill The Rickyard Silver Street Springhead Station Road Swan Street West End Outskirts of the village
List of Antiquities and other sites of interest Glossary of Architectural Words Note on Legislation affecting Listed Buildings Further Reading

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Preface

To the first edition
This list of buildings and other things of special interest in Ashwell is the result of a working party set up by the Parish Council in response to a request from the District Council to recommend revisions to the list of Listed Buildings which was originally prepared by the former Ministry of Housing and Local Government in the 1950s. It was widely recognised that a number of un-listed houses of definite architectural value in the village were worthy of listing, while others already listed merited up-grading.

During the meetings of the working party a great deal of information which had not hitherto been recorded was collected together from recent research and local knowledge, especially from Messrs. John Bray and Albert Sheldrick, founders of the Village Museum. After the revised list had been submitted to the District Council it seemed a pity to let this wealth of knowledge to mature in some filing system where it was not easily available to people interested in the village. It was therefore agreed by the Parish Council and approved at an open meeting of the Ashwell Association that the material should be published as a booklet with two principal modifications, namely the omission of the names of house owners and occupiers, and the omission of the Ministry grades (both existing and as revised by the working party).

The opportunity has been taken to expand some of the information and to add details of new buildings. It should be emphasised that what follows here is not the statutory list of Historic Buildings and has no official standing but, as with the Ashwell Village Appraisal, it is hoped that it will be of use and interest to the inhabitants of the village and those concerned with its rich architectural heritage.

Corrections and additions for a future edition would be welcome.

"How these curiosities would be quite forgott did not such idle fellowes as I putt them down".
John Aubrey, Brief Lives.

4
Appendix C

Preface

To the second edition
As part of the working of the Ashwell Neighbourhood Plan Working Group it was decided to take another look at this list to see if it could still be of use in making planning decisions and to revise where necessary.

This has been done and once again it has been decided to publish the results. There are some changes in the way this edition has been set out and the information that is in it. Firstly the detail of properties, where it has been possible to identify the correct building/site, farm the 1829 Rate Survey that was undertaken in the parish.¹This survey lists the owners of properties, the tenants, a description of the property and the rental value. This latter figure was used for basing the rates on and continued in use until the 1980s when first the poll tax and then the council tax superseded it. Secondly the description of the listed building with the grade which is published by Historic England.²Thirdly there are Additional informations that were made in 1979 and today. These are from local knowledge and have no legal status at all. Reference is made to the sketches of Charlotte Morice the daughter of the Rector Henry Morice. These sketches, with

other of local settlements, Cambridge and Prague were sold to raise money to found a girls’

school. This became known as Mrs Ratcliffe’s School, Ratcliffe being her marriage name. the school was closed when the board school, now Ashwell Primary School, was opened in 1878. Most of the sketches are in a book in HALS where they can be viewed.³

The second section lists other sites of interest including Scheduled sites in the Parish. These are areas which Historic England considers to be of great importance and need to have some form of protection. Where the site is an arable field the farmer may be restricted at to how deep they can plough. It will also restrict whether people can go and dig holes in the field.

It is hoped that this booklet will help inform parish councillor and other planners when they make decisions on particular buildings or sites. It is also hope that it will be of general interest.

David Short Ashwell 2020

1

Survey of the Farmsteads, Private Dwellings-houses, Shops, Cottages, etc. etc at Ashwell, Hertfordshire made August 1829 editor David Short, Ashwell

2

Historic England, The Listing https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/

Sketches of Ashwell, 1830 – 1850 by Charlotte Morice HALS Ref. DE/X916

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5

Acknowledgements

First edition

Members of the Parish Council Working Party on Listed Buildings
Liz Moynihan, Chairman Gurney Sheppard Chairman of the Parish Council John Bray Philip Coverdale Phil Crump Howard Day Albert Sheldrick David Sherlock David Short

Edited and Produced by David and Heather Sherlock Cover Desiged by Colin Barker Typing and Layout by Eileen Higham Printing and Binding by Inprint of Luton (Designers & Printers) Ltd.

Enquiries
Ashwell Association c/o Little Garth Mill Street Ashwell Near Baldock, Hertfordshire.

Second Edition
6
Appendix C

Introduction

The Physical Setting

Ashwell is a thriving parish of 4,108 acres in North Hertfordshire, on the borders of
Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. with a population of about 2,000 (2011) it is the largest of a group of villages situated in a rural area of some 45 square miles, bounded on the west by the A1 on the east by the A14 and on the south by the A505. The nearest small towns are Baldock (4 miles south-west) and Royston (6 miles east). Visually this is an extremely attractive area. Approaching Ashwell from the south or west one passes through open arable land and on to the steep north-facing scarp of Newnham and Claybush Hills. These provide a sudden wide view over the valley where the river Cam has its sources, to the hills of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Ashwell, with its magnificent church, nestles among trees immediately below, stretching along the spring line. Approaching from the north and east the low-lying pastures, trees and hedgerows provide a green contrast with the unspoilt horizon of the chalk hills to the south.

In the northern part of the parish the land is low-lying and gently undulating, formed on chalk marl. Southwards the land rises quite steeply to over 300ft above sea level in the middle chalk escarpment, the Eastern Heights a north-easterly extension of the Chilterns. Boulder clay, deposited at the end of the Ice Age, caps the highest point, Claybush Hill (100m).

At the base of the escarpment are outcrops of Totternhoe stone, a well-jointed chalk, which produces springs from water gathered in the porous chalk. Much of the older part of the village stretches along the lower slope where water could be reached fairly easily from shallow wells.

All the soils in Ashwell are alkaline. That on the escarpment is light, easily worked and drains quickly. It contrasts with those on Claybush Hill and on the chalk marl which are quite wet and heavy.

Historical Background

From early times the present parish of Ashwell has been a focus for settlements. In 2005 a
Neolithic (2,700 -2,000 BC) henge was excavated near the corner of Station Road and Ashwell Street. In the Bronze Age (c. 1800 to c. 800 BC) the presence of a number of burial barrows in the southern half of the parish suggest that there must have been settlement in the area. During the Iron Age (c. 800 BC to 100 AD) Arbury Banks was built and occupied. However the mani settlement in this period was probably at Buttway, half way to Ashwell End. During the Roman period there was a shrine at Ashwell End to the Ashwell goddess Senuna. Having a shrine there infers that there would be services to feed and bed the visiting pilgrims. To date the area has not been investigated thoroughly to see where exactly this settlement was. Not far from the shrine was a villa with a possible bath house. There was also a Roman villa on the south facing slope of Partridge Hill not far from Arbury Banks. Ongoing excavation suggest that there was also a religious site in the Roman period south of the springs.

The present village, or town as it was known until the beginning of the twentieth century century, probably began as a frontier borough, built by King Alfred's son Edward the Elder around 917.⁴The place-name is first recorded in the will of Authelgifu who died c. 990. By 1086 (Domesday Book) Ashwell was one of the most important towns in Hertfordshire being a borough, a market town, with fourteen burgesses, and dues amounting to 49 shillings and 4 pence due to the Abbot of Westminster who was lord of the manor.

For many centuries the market played a central role in the history of Ashwell. From earliest times it attracted the interest of neighbouring areas. High Street, with its important farms, was one of the boundaries of the market place, the others being Gardiners Lane, Swan Street, Hodwell and the footpath from Hodwell to High Street at the Springs. When the market began to decline in the seventeenth century the fortunes of Ashwell also declined. In 1850 there was a disastrous fire covering a large part of the village, sketches and an account of which can be seen in the Museum.

⁴‘Ashwell: an example of Anglo-Saxon town planning’, by David Short in Hertfordshire a county of

small towns Terry Slater and Nigel Goose editors, Hatfield 2012

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St. Mary's Church dominates the landscape with its great nave and tower. Built between 1320 and 1390 it reflects the prosperity of the town of that period. Life in Ashwell is reflected in the Church, the graffiti tells of the disaster brought by the plague of 1348-50 and the great storm of 1361. The interior, devoid of murals, ancient stained glass or statues, reflects the strong influence of the Protestants in the seventeenth century and later. Until recently there were no less than six different non-conformist chapels in the village although not all in operation at any one time.

Enclosure came late in 1863. The structure of the town still reflects this and the agricultural depression which was to follow shortly afterwards. Up to the Second World War the main farms of the parish could still be found in High Street, as they would have been found in Anglo-Saxon times. But in the last fifty years changes in farming methods have meant the decline of these farmyards as working farms, so that today no working farms can be seen in the village. The two breweries, Fordham’s and Page's, both now defunct, also once employed a large proportion of the population of the village.

It is almost impossible to estimate the population of Ashwell prior to the census of 1801, but a few rough figures are available. In Domesday Book, 1086, there are 83 families listed in the borough, making a population of between 350 and 450 people. In 1307 this figure had risen to 129 families making a population of between 550 and 600 people. By 1563 the number of families had fallen to 87, between 350 and 450 people. In 1801 there were 715 people. A peak of 1,576 persons was reached in 1871 which then fell back to 1360 in 1971. In 2011 the number had risen to about 2,000.⁵

5

For a fuller discussion of Ashwell population figures and how these allow you to compare

Ashwell with the surrounding area see ‘The History of Ashwell from a wider perspective’ in

Snippets of A shwell’s History Vol 2, David Short, Ashwell 2012. Census figures appear to be accurate but there were assumption made about under-registration.

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Appendix C

List of Buildings

The Village

Angell's Meadow

Additional information

44 houses, including those in Silver Street, built 1975-1978.

Quaker Burial Ground

The original Quaker Meeting House was burned down in the fire of 1850. This walled burial ground only has early 19^thcentury gravestones.

Ashwell Street

The Mount

Rate Survey

Cottage, Stud and plastered with thatched roof containing 2 rooms on the ground floor and 2 bedrooms above. Small back Gardens and small frontage Do. Well of Water and large Garden rented of Mr. Farr. Old Pigsty.

Cottage same as last containing 2 rooms on the Ground floor and 2 bedrooms above.

Site of former pest house and before 1834 possibly, for a short time, was the parish workhouse. The present building is not that which was described in the Rate Survey and is, in 2020, largely ruined.

30-32 Flint Cottages

The only cottages of flint construction in the village probably built after 1829 but definitely before 1841.

Back Street

51-53Pixie Cottage

Rate Survey

Cottage part boarded part clayed and thatched containing 2 rooms on the ground floor and one bedroom. Barn boarded and thatched. Small garden.

Much altered in the 20^thcentury.

63-69 Forester's Cottages

Built in 1892 for local members of the Ancient Order of Foresters, which is a friendly society formed in 1834. The Order still owns the allotments behind the cottages.

83 Bellbine Cottage

Rate Survey

Cottage, Stud and plastered with thatched roof containing 2 rooms and Pantry on the ground floor and 2 bedrooms above. Barn Stud and clayed with thatched roof adjoining Small Yard, old Wood hovel and Pigsty. Good Garden.

9

Cottage same as last containing Sitting room, 2 bedrooms and small Pantry. Small Garden and Well of Water.

The present cottage is said to have been built by Fred Bray in 1920. It is not known if the earlier cottages were incorporated in the new structure. Sympathetically designed.

87 Wayside Cottage

Rate Survey

Cottage Stud and plastered with thatched roof containing 2 rooms on the ground floor and 2 bedrooms above. Small frontage Garden inclosed with palisade fence. Barn Stud and clayed with thatched roof. Small Yard, good Garden, and well of good Water.

Listing

Grade II
House. Later 17^thcentury. Timber frame. Clunch and plaster walls. Brick plinth. Modern pantile roof. 2 storeys. 2 windows, the upper floor with glazing bar casements, the ground floor with sashes. Panelled door with moulded wood reveal. Rebuilt ridge stack on left centre. The right gable end has its upper floor jettied on straight brackets.

The claybat and weatherboarded barn at the rear with thrashing floor or 'midstie' was incorporated in the house in the 1980s.

2-20 Bear Farm Buildings

The site was destroyed in the fire of 1850. Pantiled single storey outbuildings forming a noteworthy boundary along Bear Lane. The farmyard was redeveloped in 1979 for housing by the Ashwell Housing Association. Peter Boston was the architect.

Dixies Farm Dovecote

Rate Survey

Large Dove House, brick built and tiled. (Part of the description for Upper Farmyard of Dixies Farm in High Street)

Listing

Grade II
Dovecote and granary. 30 metres southwest of Dixies. Late 17^thcentury, largely rebuilt in late 18^thcentury. Red brick, partly chequered. Plain tile roof, hipped with louvred gablets. Square plan. 2 storeys. Dentilled brick eaves. south elevation has ground and first floor plank doors. Bottom part of ground floor has 17^thcentury bricks.

The east wall was partially demolished by the owner in the late 1970s which he was forced to rebuilt.

50 The Engine

Rate Survey

Cottage, part boarded part clayed with thatched Roof containing One Room on the ground floor and bedroom above. Leanto Pigsty. Small Wood Barn. Small Garden.

Cottage Stud and plastered with tiled roof containing sitting room Oven Pantry and 2 bedrooms. Small narrow Garden.

Cottage part brick and part boarded with tiled roof, containing sitting room. Pantry and. 2 bedrooms. Small garden.

Cottage under the same roof as last. Stud and plastered containing Sitting room and Pantry on the ground floor and 2 bedrooms above. Small Garden front of House. A piece of Garden ground at the back.

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Appendix C

Cottage same as last, containing Sitting room and Pantry on the ground floor and 2 bedrooms above. Small garden in front. Ditto at the back.

A beerhouse and pub from the 1870s to the late 1970s. Plastered with steeply pitched slate roof. The cottage at the west end was added c.1930. The ‘Engine’ refers to a thrashing engine which was possibly situated in the garden of 110 High Street.

Bacons Yard

Houses built in 1978 on the site of Bluegates Dairy. A film made in 1947 shows cows being milked in the dairy.

Church Lane

3

Methodist Society Meeting House

Built sometime before 1841 it was converted into two houses in 1880 when, as it was too small for the congregation, it was sold. A larger chapel was built a few metres away at 51 High Street. This chapel was closed in 1978 and demolished for new housing in 1979.

Church Path

Church Path cottages

Mid-19^thcentury (probably in the 1850s). Clay bat construction under slate roof. They form an important feature of this approach to the St Mary’s Church. A barn stood here in 1826. A coin of Louis Napoleon of France, which is now in Ashwell Museum, was found here.

Claybush Road formerly Bygrave Road

2

The Orchard

A lime kiln in the garden is still in a good state of preservation. It went out of use in 1930. The

lime used in the Lutyens’ alterations to The Bury was burnt here.

4-14 The Bungalows

A number of bungalows were built in the 1920 by F J Bailey the builder. He had decided to close his business and built these houses with the materials he had lying in his builder’s yard. The result was not only different styles but different building materials depending on what was available. Many have now been demolished.

Royal Observer Corps monitoring post

Near the top of Claybush Hill was an underground monitoring post which was used by the Royal Observer Corps.

Fordham Close

All but four of the buildings that made up Fordham's Brewery were demolished in 1973. The survivors were the Maltings, Kiln House, Dray House and the Manager’s office in Mill Street.

The Maltings and The Kiln House

11

Late 19^thcentury. Yellow brick; slate roof. Sympathetically altered to residential use in 1973. Awarded a North Herts District Council Civic Award in 1975. This part of the Maltings was once used as a grain store with chute and engine house.

The Dray House

19^thcentury stables converted to residential use in 1976. Interesting windows and features as in the Maltings. Part of the building was the cooper’s workshop. Awarded North Herts District Council Commendation 1979.

Gardiner's Lane

1, 3 Chevney Cottage and another cottage

Rate Survey

Cottage, Stud and plastered with tiled roof, containing Sitting room. Kitchen, Pantry and 2 bedrooms. Small back Kitchen. Pigsty, Carpenters Shop. Yard and Pump of Water.

Cottage as last containing Sitting room and bedroom.

Listing

Grade II
Pair of cottages in single range, broken in central ground floor by a square cart entrance. 17^thcentury, altered mid-19^thcentury. Timber frame. 17^thcentury brick plinth. Roughcast walls. Lowpitched slate roof with wide eaves. 2 white brick stacks. Cheney Cottage on right has central recessed half-glazed door. Single sashes each side. 19^thcentury cast iron casements above. No. 1 has 2 glazing bar casements. The east entrance has a 19^thcentury moulded architrave.

5

Rate Survey

Cottage, Stud and plastered with thatched roof, containing 2 rooms on the ground floor and 2 bedrooms on the One pair. Stud and plastered Barn with thatched roof.

Listing

Grade II
Cottage. Late 17^thor early 18^thcentury. Timber frame. Roughcast. Thatched roof. 2 storeys. 3 19^thcentury sash windows slightly recessed in moulded wood frames. Left 1st floor sashes are paired; right ones have replacement glazing bars. Right return elevation has 3 ground floor casements; exposed floor plates and heavy purlins.